God of prayers and answers

This matter is getting messier by the second. The queer characters involved are not helping matters. They are sharply divided and at each other’s cracked throats.

They are like two notorious parallel lines, sworn never to meet. The two are playing irritating politics with the chaotic situation. They are playing dangerous kites with our lives. All of them – pro and anti – are not faithful with the truth. And that is deliberate.

Embattled Justice Walter Onnoghen is at the centre of it all, our own Adjudicator-in-Chief. For now, he remains the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). He is caught up in fierce legal battle to save his life and profession.

Sadly, on this Onnoghen, we are getting near nowhere. The two divides are all basing their warped arguments on nothing concrete. They choose to lazily rely on, at best, half-truths and, at worst, no truth at all.

The way we are going, we may never get to the very bottom of the matter till kingdom come. The end is never in sight. We keep on going back and forth. We are following the Israelites’ missteps in the desert.

But unlike the Israelites, we are moving aimlessly. At least, the Israelites had a destination, they had a vision, a dream. They were conscious of the Promised Land.

With all determination, they fixed their gaze on that. Despite wandering in the hot desert for 40 years, many ups and downs, they still got their bearings right. They eventually made it to where they were predetermined.

Ours is the direct and exact opposite; we have none of these qualities, the reason we are still drifting after 58 years of our so-called nationhood.

We are clearly not prepared for the storm. So, we are not ready to weather it. That makes us to err, goof, fumble and bobble all at the same time and repeatedly. We have never got it right in our turbulent existence.

This Onnoghen affair has thrown up many things. See how ridiculously they interpret our laws. They have no iota of shame. They give the interpretations that oil their bruised egos. They turn our ordinances upside down for their selfish reasons.

They bend the rules with gross impunity and reckless abandon. They ruthlessly play God on almost every issue that benefits them. They are insensitive to others’ feelings. They behave as if there would be no tomorrow.

Let the two divides swap positions. They would behave exactly the same way, if not worst. No merit in their twisted arguments; they are grossly vague. It depends on which side of the knife you are holding.

You marvel how the two divides are going about doing their things. Pity. They have trivialised our past. They are trivialising our present. But more pathetic, they are striving hard to trivialise our future, even generations unborn. What a country!

Even from a poor layman’s point of view, you would want to wonder aloud. How come our Law-Interpreter-in-Chief lodges such large sums of money in the bank in one day, more so in foreign currency?

There are other curious issues raised even in the various explanations and excuses given. But they are better left for the competent court of law to interpret and make pronouncement.

We must appreciate the celerity and swiftness President Muhammadu Buhari is deploying into the Onnoghen affair.

It initially cheered you up that the president is both responsible and responsive. It drew your distant attention to the president’s newfound alertness. This alacrity is unrivaled and unprecedented. It is a welcome development.

But that is where it ends. If other urgent state matters had been given the Onnoghen treatment, if Buhari had applied just half of the energy and resources deployed on Onnoghen with unequalled promptness, your guess is as good as mine.

For sure, we would not be in this mess we have found ourselves in. We would have moved up as a nation; perhaps, higher than the “next level” being professed.

You cannot pretend to be firm and upright but blatantly ignore the law. In fact, that should be the basis of your firmness and uprightness. Not the other way round. You cannot walk the law on its head and feign integrity. It would never work; it has never worked that way.

Your much-taunted probity must rest heavily on the Constitution. That virtue of yours collapses like a pack of loose cards if you truncate that Constitution. You must always be seen to align with the due process clearly spelt out.

Sure, you have the option to do otherwise. You will have to go the whole hog. You have the unpleasant alternative to suspend the Constitution. And you would have your way almost unhindered. You could even choose to tread the bumpy path that despotic General Sani Abacha trod. We too have a choice whether to coast along with you or not.

Yes. Major-General Muhammadu Buhari did it before in 1984; and we had an awful ride with him. He came, put the Constitution somewhere and did whatever pleased him. Those bold enough to challenge him had the regrets of their lives. Some paid the supreme price.

But the game has changed. That dark era is gone forever. Now, this is the fact: You cannot pretend to practice democracy and at the same time rubbish the rules that make the democracy to stand on its legs.

Lest we forget, democracy is not run at one’s own convenience. Neither is it on your whims and caprices. You cannot always have your way, no matter your supposedly good intentions.

Checks and balances are the beauty of democracy. And those values must be appreciated and respected, so that we do not unconsciously find ourselves in an Animal Farm.

Our leaders have to submit themselves to the Constitution, whether convenient or inconvenient. That is what they publicly swore an oath to uphold. They must not be allowed to move the goalposts in the middle of the game. That is fraud, another name for corruption.

The Constitution is not perfect anywhere. But it can still work for us as it is doing in other democracies. We can make ours work also. Can’t we?

Yes we can! Our God has a unique way of answering our prayers. He has unequivocally demonstrated the efficacy of prayers in more several ways than one.

Look back into our explosive history. God has been so merciful the peculiar way He answers our prayers in this clime. And for that we are eternally grateful.

We never thought that was the way He would answer our prayers in 1998, under Abacha. He is still on the throne. This 2019 cannot be an exemption. God will definitely answer us in a way that will pleasantly shock us.

Let every Nigerian shout the loudest AMEN!